Stripping clear lacquer from aluminium

[wrinkleygit]

hello, the rear swinging arm of my newly acquired Yeti 575 has suffered over time from stone chips, chain slap & years of enjoyment leaving whats left of the clear lacquer looking quite scruffy, I'm now facing two choices, either leave it as it is & just enjoy riding it, or try & remove it all & then just polish up the bare alloy & possibly re coat. Any ideas on the best way to remove lacquer welcome, first thought is to use a wire brush on the end of a drill followed by varying grades of wet/dry or wire wool, not sure if chemical stripper might react with alloy, mike b.

 

[Woz]

Re:

I used sanding pads, the spongey type.

 

[scottproonly]

Re:

I have used chemical stripper on alloy frames before with no problems
Kes

 

[bartsince1975]

Gasket remover works well on harder paints and powder coats. Sand the surface with rough grade first for best (easiest) effect.

 

[02gf74]

if you just want to remove the laquer, then try paint stripper on a small section that is not visible - e.g. undersize of chain stay

If you use any type of sanding device, then you will inevitably scratch the surface so would need to start the sanding process with finer grades of wet n n dry until you reach 1200, then polishing compound to remove all the scratches - which you won't so need to polish the whole swing arm to make it match.

Aluminium alloy is soft so wire brushes or sander disc in a drill/angle grinder will gouge far deeper into the alloy that you would by hand so be aware of that.

 

[itscervo]

Use nail varnish remover, it must be the Acetone type.